1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to data access and storage and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for rapid data access and distribution using structured identifiers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Real-time computer systems require high speed, scalable data access techniques. Many such systems rely on structured alphanumeric identification codes such as phone numbers, UPC numbers, or location codes. Particular substrings within the identification codes are used to signify various attributes associated with the identifier. These structured identification codes may then be used to locate data within a data store.
Depending upon the type of identifier used, these structured identifiers and their component substrings may be of variable length. One such example is a telephone number. For the interconnected phone networks of the international telephone network, the phone numbers follow the ITU-T E.164 telephone number format standard, which specifies that an entire number should be 15 digits or shorter, and begin with a country prefix. The country prefixes consist of variable length country codes, making determining a phone number's country code a time consuming, non-trivial task. Since the country code is required before the telephone system can begin routing the phone call, it is advantageous to minimize the time spent identifying the country code. Therefore, there is a need in the art for a method and apparatus for rapid data access and distribution using structured identifiers.